This tutorial gives a user an introduction to Blaq and explains how they can customise it to their own personal preferences.

About Blaq

Blaq is a web application, so can be used anywhere there is a web browser and internet connection. For best results, always ensure you're using the latest version of your browser.

Using Blaq

You'll find after using Blaq for just a short time, it will become very easy to navigate around. Navigation is mostly done using the menus at the top of the screen.

Below the top menu you'll see displayed a title which tells you where in Blaq you are. Below that is usually a toolbar with various buttons for functions such as saving, printing, etc. and under that is often a set of tabs, generally for accessing different sub-sections of the section you're in.

To go to any part of Blaq, click on the section in the top menu. Because Blaq can be setup with different privileges for different users, you might try to access a particular section and see a message stating you don't have access to that section. If so, speak to your company's administrator for Blaq about possibly being given access.

When you access most of the sections of Blaq, the first thing you'll see is a list of records. Often, there may be more records in the list than can fit on the page. If you look towards the top right of the screen, you'll see how many records there are as well as buttons to move forward and backward in the list. When you've found the record you want, simply double-click on it with your mouse.

Wherever you see some text underlined in green, it means it's a tip and if you move your mouse over it you'll see some more information about that field.

Customising Blaq

Before you can use Blaq, you need to set your preferences. Preferences allow you to tailor Blaq for your own use. The usual way of accessing the Preferences section is either by the Tools > Preferences menu or the Preferences link in the top right corner of Blaq.

There are many options available here, including:

General

Password - you can change your password whenever you like. To do so, type in a new password and repeat it in the Confirm Password field.

Start-up:

Style - this is Blaq's colour scheme. There are several different schemes available here, allowing you to give Blaq a different look.

Start in - when you log in to Blaq, this is the section you will be taken to, so choose the section you would like to see first.

View Records - when viewing the various lists in Blaq (eg. Jobs & Contacts) this setting will control the number of records shown on each page. This allows you to show more or less records to suit the size of your screen.

Planner:

Week starts on - the first day of the week the planner should show, also used for all calendars in Blaq.

Day starts at / Day finishes at - in the planner day & week views, these are the start and finish times for the day.

Day increments - in the planner day & week views, these are the increments each day is broken up into.

Time sheet increments - when adding a time sheet entry, these are the increments for the time selection. For example, setting 5 minutes will make times such as 8:00, 8:05, 8:10, 8:15 etc. whereas setting 15 minutes will allow only 8:00, 8:15, 8:30. It depends on how precise you are with recording time sheets.

E-mail:

Auto BCC e-mails to me - when you create an email in Blaq, setting this to Yes will automatically add your e-mail address to the BCC field of the email so a copy of the e-mail will be sent to your e-mail address.

E-mail signature - this is the signature automatically added to the end of each e-mail you create in Blaq.

Widgets - these are small windows which show a variety of information such as sales data either on the sidebar or within the dashboard. Here you can select which widgets you would like to use and whether they should be in your sidebar or dashboard.

Dashboard Columns - in the dashboard view, widgets are displayed in a number of columns. You can set the number of columns here to suit the size of screen you use.

Widgets - there are various widgets listed here. Each one has the following options:

Hidden - this will prevent the widget from being shown.

Sidebar Minimised / Sidebar Maximised - this will show the widget in the sidebar. When Blaq starts, the widgets will initially be minimised or maximised depending on which is chosen.

Dashboard Minimised / Dashboard Maximised - this will show the widget in the dashboard section. Each time the dashboard is used, the widgets will initially be minimised or maximised depending on which is chosen.

Groups - these can be assigned to contacts and customers. These can be useful for keeping certain contacts/customers together, or for recording which contacts/customers have been used in various promotions and marketing campaigns.

Contact Groups - these are available in the Contacts section.

Customer Groups - these are available in the Customers section.

Once you have completed your changes, click on the Save button. Some of the changes will become effective immediately, whereas most won't until you next login to Blaq.

Last modified: 14/09/2010

Why blaq?

blaq will save you time. With blaq you will be ahead of your competitors.

We value our reputation for excellent support, and as our customers will attest, we go the extra mile.

Blaq enables you and your staff to stay in control of the workflow within your company.